Chennai Buzz: AC buses back in city | Rent law amendment | Metrowater plans…and more

From changes in rent laws to plans of parastatal agencies such as MTC, CMRL and Metrowater, catch the important news of the week in this edition of Buzz.

Chennai gets AC buses again

After nearly a gap of one and a half years, MTC has re-introduced AC buses in the city again. The AC buses have been launched on two routes: Dr MGR Bus Terminus in Koyambedu to Siruseri via Velachery and Thiruvanmiyur to Tambaram. The minimum ticket price has been fixed at ₹15 and the maximum is ₹60 till Siruseri. The MTC further plans to add five more routes.

Source: The Hindu

Chennai ranks third highest in the no. of murders in metros

Chennai has seen a consistent rise in the number of murders according to the recent data released by the National Crime Records Bureau. The city witnessed 172 murders in 2018, the third-highest among the metros after Delhi and Bengaluru. Personal enmity and petty quarrels accounted for more than half the murders. About 18% of the murders were crimes of passion over extramarital relationships or love affairs.

Source: The Times of India

Tenancy agreement registrations extended till September

The timeline for registering tenancy agreements has been extended for another eight months till September 20, 2020.

The ordinance that was passed in February had set a 90-day deadline for registering agreements with the rent authority. This was later extended to 365 days and now a bill has been passed to amend the Tamil Nadu Regulation of Rights and Responsibilities of Landlords and Tenants Act, 2017, extending the registration period to 575 days since the Act was passed. The amendment was passed to enable awareness generation on the new Rent Act and also due to poor response to registering the documents.

Source: The New Indian Express

CMRL asks Corporation to shift bus stops closer to metros

Chennai Metro Rail has asked the city corporation to shift the bus shelters closer to the entrance of the metro stations including at the Airport and Guindy stations. This is to ensure first and last-mile connectivity easier for metro commuters. Metro officials have also said there are proposals to set up new bus shelters closer to metro stations at Guindy, Ekkattuthangal,  Vadapalani, Meenambakkam, and Nanganallur.

Source: The Times of India

Equal distribution of Metrowater to all parts of the city

With water supply to the city looking positive, Metrowater plans to supply water equally across the city. With inflows of Krishna water assured till the end of February, Metrowater officials are looking at optimizing the use of available resources to provide equitable water supply to even tail-end areas.

Since last September, the city has so far received one of the highest volumes of Krishna water from Andhra Pradesh since 2011. Poondi reservoir, which provides storage for these inflows, has received 4,212 million cubic feet (mcft) of Krishna water, which is equivalent to five months’ supply to the city.

Source: The Hindu

[Compiled by Sandhya Raju]

Comments:

  1. Padmanabhan G says:

    Why 6 out of 7 routes are dedicated to only Thiruvanmiyur sector? Does the management feel it can take in the moolah in that route only? Are not other citizens entitled to have this facility?

  2. Anurdha sancheti says:

    Any ac buses from chennai to kancheepuram.. Would be great if its there as usual..

  3. K.KRISHNAMURTHY says:

    A/C BUS IS USEFUL ONLY FOR ABOUT 10% OF COMMUTER, IF IT COMES IN TIME. BUT BECAUSE OF TRAFFIC PROBLEM IT IS DIFFICULT TO KEEP TIME. WITHOUT KNOWING WHETHER BUS IS COMING OR GOT BREAKDOWN,ONE CAN NOT WAIT. HE WILL CHOOSE OTHER MODE OF TRANSPORT. IF GPS IS FIXED,HE CAN TRACK AND WAIT.SO FIX GPS AS EARLY AS POSSIBLE IN ALL METRO BUSES

  4. K.KRISHNAMURTHY says:

    AS SUPPLY OF METRO WATER IS NOT SUFFICIENT, PEOPLE ARE DRAWING NON EVAPORABLE GROUND WATER .DO NOT WASTE LAKE WATER BY EVAPORATION.SUPPLY SUFFICIENT METRO WATER TO AVOID DRAWING PRECIOUS GROUND WATER

  5. Krishnan says:

    The MTC is in the habit of announcing grandiose projects but doing little to continue the services. Hardly a decade ago there was a fleet of Volvo ( a/c) buses procured under the JNNURM scheme of the Central Govt. Not a single bus is now seen on the road today. Hundreds of crores of tax-payer money has vaporized.

    Around the beginning of the Millennium the MTC announced with much fanfare, a proposal to make its fleet GPS ready.
    After two decades, they have nothing to show for it except for some blinking LCD displays at a few places showing the time! Even those boards have now gone defunct.
    One does not know how much of tax-payer money has been squandered under this scheme.

    The services continue to be erratic as ever with the top managers having no clue about the status of the fleet.

    The organization continues to make losses year after and keeps moving from one crises to another. Staff Unions have grievances over the corporation delaying payments to those who retired from service. The steep hike in fares a year back, has done precious little to improve the finances. The Corporation has instead lost market share. The expected hike in earnings has not materialized.
    People have suddenly discovered that the local trains are far cheaper, quicker and run on a time-table unlike the buses, which seem to operate on a whim.

    The MTC is at all at sea in a world increasingly driven by technology.

    The next phase of the Metro will see 50-100 stations coming all over the city. Considering the comfort, reliability and speed of this service, the Chennai commuter may not mind paying a little more for quckly reaching his destination.

    The MTC must dump all their grandiose ideas and come up with a simple way of getting the commuter from point A to point B in a reliable way. They should run only ONE TYPE of service at a competitive fare.

    They must push the Govt for a BRTS on wide roads. It may not even be a bad idea to phase out the big buses and go for smaller ones which are more manoeuvrable and can reach smaller interior areas.

    It is time for the MTC to reform and reach out to the people – or perish.

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